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2021Q4 Houzz Renovation Barometer - Construction Sector
Houzz Research
October 14, 2021
Findings from the Q4 2021 Houzz Renovation Barometer, which tracks residential renovation market expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among businesses in the construction sector.
The Expected Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects decreased to 74 in Q4 (compared to 76 in Q3): The expectations for project inquiries declined from 79 to 73 in Q4, while expectations for new committed projects increased slightly to 74 in Q4 (up one point). Among the two reporting business groups, expectations decreased slightly to 76 (compared to 77 in Q3) for build-only remodelers, while declining significantly among design and build remodelers to 71 in Q4 (compared to 76 in Q3). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Project Backlog Indicator reached 11.7 weeks nationally at the start of Q4: The overall backlog for the construction sector has been increasing for seven consecutive quarters and is more than a month (4.3 weeks) longer than the same period last year. Among the two reporting business groups, backlogs declined for build-only remodelers to 9.6 weeks among both build-only remodelers to 10.5 weeks (down 0.9 weeks relative to Q3) and reached its highest length among design and build remodelers (13.7 weeks) since Houzz began reporting on project backlogs as part of the Barometer in Q3 2017. See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
Geographically, backlogs vary significantly from 9.2 weeks (Mountain division) to 13.8 weeks (New England division) across the nine Census divisions. Backlogs in the construction sector are longer than a year ago across all nine Census divisions.
The Recent Business Activity Indicator related to project inquiries and new committed projects declined to 73 in Q3 (compared to 82 in Q2): This follows significant decreases in project inquiry activity to 71 in Q3 (compared to 84 in Q2) and new committed projects to 75 (down six points relative to Q2). The overall recent activity indicator for the construction services sector was driven by decreases reported by the two business groups. Build-only remodelers reported a significant decrease in the recent business activity to 75 (compared to 82 in Q2), which is considered a strong activity index compared with the activity reported since Houzz began reporting the Barometer in 2015. Design and build remodelers also reported a significant decrease in recent activity to 71 in Q3 (down 12 points relative to Q2). See additional subsector and regional data (PDF).
The Q4 2021 Barometer was fielded from September 28 through October 8th and garnered responses from 147 build-only remodelers and 409 design and build remodelers (n=556 in the construction sector). See detailed methodology here (PDF).
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